Plasma discharges can be used to excite gases to produce activated gases containing ions, free radicals, atoms and molecules. Activated gases are used for numerous industrial and scientific applications including processing solid materials such as semiconductor wafers, powders, and other gases. The parameters of the plasma and the conditions of the exposure of the plasma to the material being processed vary widely depending on the application.
For example, some applications require the use of ions with low kinetic energy (i.e. a few electron volts) because the material being processed is sensitive to damage. Other applications, such as anisotropic etching or planarized dielectric deposition, require the use of ions with high kinetic energy. Still other applications, such as reactive ion beam etching, require precise control of the ion energy.
Some applications require direct exposure of the material being processed to a high density plasma. One such application is generating ion-activated chemical reactions. Other such applications include etching of and depositing material into high aspect ratio structures. Other applications require shielding the material being processed from the plasma because the material is sensitive to damage caused by ions or because the process has high selectivity requirements.
Plasmas can be generated in various ways including DC discharge, radio frequency (RF) discharge, and microwave discharge. DC discharges are achieved by applying a potential between two electrodes in a gas. RF discharges are achieved either by electrostatically or inductively coupling energy from a power supply into a plasma. Parallel plates are typically used for electrostatically coupling energy into a plasma. Induction coils are typically used for inducing current into the plasma. Microwave discharges are achieved by directly coupling microwave energy through a microwave-passing window into a discharge chamber containing a gas. Microwave discharges are advantageous because they can be used to support a wide range of discharge conditions, including highly ionized electron cyclotron resonant (ECR) plasmas.
RF discharges and DC discharges inherently produce high energy ions and, therefore, are often used to generate plasmas for applications where the material being processed is in direct contact with the plasma. Microwave discharges produce dense, low ion energy plasmas and, therefore, are often used to produce streams of activated gas for “downstream” processing. Microwave discharges are also useful for applications where it is desirable to generate ions at low energy and then accelerate the ions to the process surface with an applied potential.
However, microwave and inductively coupled plasma sources require expensive and complex power delivery systems. These plasma sources require precision RF or microwave power generators and complex matching networks to match the impedance of the generator to the plasma source. In addition, precision instrumentation is usually required to ascertain and control the actual power reaching the plasma.
RF inductively coupled plasmas are particularly useful for generating large area plasmas for such applications as semiconductor wafer processing. However, prior art RF inductively coupled plasmas are not purely inductive because the drive currents are only weakly coupled to the plasma. Consequently, RF inductively coupled plasmas are inefficient and require the use of high voltages on the drive coils. The high voltages produce high electrostatic fields that cause high energy ion bombardment of reactor surfaces. The ion bombardment deteriorates the reactor and can contaminate the process chamber and the material being processed. The ion bombardment can also cause damage to the material being processed.
Faraday shields have been used in inductively coupled plasma sources to contain the high electrostatic fields. However, because of the relatively weak coupling of the drive coil currents to the plasma, large eddy currents form in the shields resulting in substantial power dissipation. The cost, complexity, and reduced power efficiency make the use of Faraday shields unattractive.